A FRIED EGG SANDWICH WITH BACON, AND MUSTARD

With the yolk still kinda runny.
I was making breakfast this morning and while frying an egg, I remembered an event from years ago involving people I haven't seen or talked to in as many years.
I had this friend in high school and he had a sister, they lived here with their dad,but were from Houston where their Mom still lived. His name was JoJo, her name was (pick one) BG,Rita or as we called her "sister".
Sister lived with me and my family for about a year, and during the summer of that year JoJo was down in Houston visiting his Mom.
Sister missed her brother, so one afternoon we were at the squeeze inn drinking beer (it was underage friendly) and decided to hitchhike to Houston...we hit the road without so much as a phone call to anyone, goin' to see her brother and mom.
We catch our first ride with a guy in the navy, on leave, and he takes us all the way to McAllen,right next door to Houston.
We slept off our buzz on the way, sister's head cradled on my shoulder ( it was the only time we slept together) I remember the guy waking us up at the end of the line and looking at her, snuggling me as she woke up...I had never even kissed her, I never told her, but I was madly in love.
Not in a conscious sexual way, we were connected. I would have done anything for her (like hitching to Houston without telling a soul, so she could see her brother).
So...we get to her Moms apartment and reunite the family. There's lots of pot smoking and beer drinking and reconnecting.
Mom had a phone, so I called my parents and let them know we were ok, in Houston, but ok, and that Mom would drive us back to Austin in a couple of days.
So, were out cruising the neighborhood late at night and we come across this couple whose irish setter had just been hit by a car. The dogs muzzle is crushed, the girl is hysterical, the guy is in shock. Everyone's afraid to move the dog. There's a headboard leaning against a dumpster, my inner McGuyver kicks in and suddenly it's a stretcher. We roll the setter onto it and lift him into the back of the guys truck...I'm calling the shots at this point, and sister knows where a 24 hour vet is...on the far north side, we are on the far south side.
So we take off, racing to the clinic in the back of a pick up...the setter is wheezing and bleeding all over me as I try to comfort him, sister is trying to comfort him too.
We get to the clinic, and after an examination, the setter is put down.
We sit in a close circle in the waiting room with the guy and girl for awhile, crying.
They lost their dog.But not without trying to save him, and me and sister were strangers who just happened along and tried to help. They gave us a ride back to Mom's and the next morning sister made fried egg sandwiches with bacon...the yolk was runny and mustard, because there wasn't any catsup.
I remember how it tasted like it was yesterday...
She could have been the love of my life, and in a way she was.
When I thought about her head on my shoulder in that car this morning, I smiled at the memory, and had the same feeling I had on that day...
so long ago.